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The
Chicago Planning Commission approved the Noble Charter School
Network's zoning request Thursday, paving the way for a new high school to be built across the street from Prosser Career Academy in the
Belmont Cragin neighborhood.

The proposal to develop the new charter school at 5357 W. Grand Ave., the current site of a shuttered lumberyard, now heads to the city council's zoning committee. The proposed high school would still need final approval from the school district.

Planning commission
members, who are appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, approved the zoning
change for the proposed ITW David Speer Academy charter school despite
opposition from Ald. Nicholas Sposato (36th) and Northwest Side
residents who said the new school is a risky investment for the
community and bad urban planning.

Those with Communities United
for Quality Education (CUQE) and Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our
Schools (CSOSOS) say the Northwest Side community does not need any
more high school seats, as four public high schools are already located
within a 1.5-mile radius of the proposed site. Those surrounding schools
include Edwin G. Foreman High School, Kelvyn Park High School, North-Grand High School and Prosser.

On
top of that, Census data cited in the Chicago Public Schools' 10-year Educational Facilities
Master Plan shows there will be a 1.8 percent decrease in the number of
children aged zero to 19 in the area and a 7 percent decrease of students
aged 15 to 19 in the Belmont Cragin region by 2016.

"There's going to be even less high school kids in this area," Martin Ritter with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) told the commissioners.
"Why is there a need to build a high school that will serve supposed
overcrowding? ... None of the local high schools are overcrowded. There is
not current overcrowding at these local high schools. This is bad urban
planning. Bad density choices. This is not right for the community."

According
to CPS’ funding formula for new charter schools, Noble is estimated to
receive $1.3 million in startup and operations funds from CPS in its
first year, the education organizers with CUQE and CSOSOS said.

“Why
is CPS giving less to my school and willing to give more to charter
schools,” Karla Cervantes, a Prosser senior and CSOSOS leader, said before the meeting. “My
school lost $1.2 million this year, but CPS is willing to invest $1.3
million of my parents and other Chicago taxpayer money to get this new
Noble Charter School up and running. We are sick and tired of CPS
valuing charter schools over our schools."

Noble spokeswoman Angela Montagna, however, said she was not sure how the education activists arrived at the $1.3 million figure.

Construction of the $20 million public, non-selective enrollment
charter high school would be privately-funded by Illinois Tool Works and
Nobel, she said, adding that no tax increment financing (TIF) funds or
tax dollars would be used for the effort.

"Of course there’s
startup costs to a school," Montagna said to Progress Illinois. "Part of that is being funded
by the private investment. It’s not just construction. It includes
startup costs."

Noble says the proposed project would create more
than 100 construction jobs and 50 to 60 full-time school positions once
the academy is at full capacity. The proposed campus would educate 900
students in grades nine through 12 and would be Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math (STEM) focused.

Ald. Emma Mitts (37th), whose
ward would house the proposed school, is a supporter of the project. In a
statement, Mitts said Prosser, 2148 N. Long Ave., is nearly
overcrowded. Prosser, a selective enrollment school, has a current
waiting list of more than 3,000 students, she said

"We
appreciate Prosser, but it is not an option we can build upon," Mitts' statement reads. "As an elected official with a strategic agenda for
making the 37th Ward as strong and vital as possible, I believe that one
of the most important and proven strategies for expanding education
opportunity in our public schools is simple. We must first and foremost
promote a variety of universally high-quality public school options, and
the proposed Noble STEM school is one such opportunity. I have surveyed
my community on this proposed school at community and other meetings,
and have received strong support from nearly 3,000 individuals and
families for this school."

According to CUQE and CSOSOS' calculation, by the time the charter school opens to all four grade levels,
Chicago taxpayers would have paid over $8 million in operating costs.
Those are resources that neighborhood public schools, not charters, desperately need, organizers said.

The existing public high schools in the
Belmont Cragin area are already underresourced and have seen their
collective school budgets cut by $6.3 million so far this school year, the activists said. The students and parents argued that the new charter high school may also lure students away from area public schools, meaning the
neighborhood schools could lose even more dollars in the future due to
decreased enrollment.

"I cannot understand the insanity of building a school across the street from a high school that’s already existing," said Prosser parent Sue Rosendale-Matthews. "Our
budget got cut [by] $1.2 million. You're giving $1.3 million [in] startup
costs? I'm not getting that. I may not be the best person in math, but
that doesn't make sense to me."

Due to the $1.2 million
in budget cuts at Prosser, some classes are not using textbooks because
the school cannot afford them for all the students, said Angel Sosa, a
Prosser sophomore. Those affiliated with Prosser said they have been asking CPS to
build an extension at the school to accommodate more students looking to
get in, but the district has reportedly rejected the idea, citing budget constraints.

"Why is there no
money for my school, but there's enough money to have a whole new
charter school in front of my school in an area where there is already
four CPS high schools with a 1.5-mile radius?" Sosa asked the
commissioners.

Quijna Walton, a student at Steinmetz College Prep, added that her Spanish class has almost 50 kids in one classroom due to the budget cuts.

Here's more from Walton, as well as Ald. Sposato, who spoke at a press conference before the meeting:

As it stands, there are already 5,900 elementary, middle and high school
students within .25 miles of the proposed Nobel site, Ritter said. Factoring in the students
from the proposed Nobel school would bring the total close to 7,000, he
said, adding that "We don't have the public transportation to take on these kids."

"High
school kids are high school kids. They run into each other on the
streets. Noble knows this," Ritter added. "To have two schools looking
at each other and walking out at the same time or within an hour of
each other is not a good idea. This is not good planning. You are planning
commission members. This is not good urban planning."

Prosser will
be in Sposato's ward once the the new ward map takes effect in 2015. He echoed that it's not a good idea to have two competing high
schools right across from one another.

"We keep preaching
safety, safety, safety, kids first in this city, but yet we're building
two public high schools across the street from each other," Sposato
stressed.

Montagna pushed back on the argument that the new school would increase violence in the community.

"I
think it’s really disappointing that our expectation is that you put
students by each other and it's just going to be violent," she said. "I
think that’s an adult problem, not a kid problem."

Noble
currently has two schools that are sharing a building with a high
school, Montagna noted. And seven of Noble's 14 schools are also within two
blocks of another school.

"We've had zero major incidents that they suggest are going to be happening all the time," she said.